TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Other links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card welcome offers, earning rates and benefits and some credit card benefits will require enrollment. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
Chase has brought back a Marriott transfer promotion that we seem to see appear every few months and while this promotion doesn’t offer the highest transfer bonus that we’ve seen in recent times, in a select number of cases the 40% bonus that’s now on offer can make transfers worthwhile.
Chase Ultimate Rewards offers transfers to just three hotel loyalty programs and one of these is Marriott Bonvoy. Right now, the bank is offering a 40% bonus on all Ultimate Rewards Points transferred over to Marriott by 11:59 PM ET on 15 June 2024, but this is a deal that everyone should be approaching with care.
The math
I value Ultimate Rewards points at 1.5 cents each (based on the value that I know I can get out of them with very little effort) and, as valuations go, this is probably one of the more conservative valuations you’ll see.
When it comes to Marriott Bonvoy points, I struggle to value them at anything higher than 0.6 cents each, so with this transfer bonus seeing Ultimate Rewards Points converting to Marriott Bonvoy points at a ratio of 1 to 1.4, I’m essentially being asked to convert points worth 1.5 cents each into points worth 0.84 cents.
On the face of things that looks like a terrible deal (and for many people it will be), but there are times when a transfer from Chase to Marriott can make sense, so it’s important not to dismiss this transfer bonus without further consideration.
On a random night in August, for example, the Ritz-Carlton Bacara Santa Barbara will charge a guest $1,573 (including taxes and fees) or 95,500 points + 62.70 in resort fees and taxes.
By using points instead of cash to make this booking, a Marriott Bonvoy member could get approximately 1.58 cents of value out of every Bonvoy point used, and that’s pretty good when you consider that they’re not worth more than 0.6 cents each, and when you consider that Marriott will sometimes sell points from ~ 0.83 cents each.
With the 40% transfer bonus that’s now on offer, enough Bonvoy points to make this booking can be generated from 69,000 Ultimate Rewards Points which, based on my valuation of 1.5 cents/point, are worth $1,035.
In this example, a transfer of Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to Marriott would see you effectively pay ~$1,098 (including resort fee) for a night that would otherwise have cost $1,573.
Things can look a bit better on stays of 5 nights thanks to the 5th night free deal that’s open to Marriott Bonvoy members on award bookings.
A 5-night stay at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara Santa Barbara in July can cost $1,075/night ($5,375) or 373,000 points + $313.50 in resort fees and taxes.
Enough Bonvoy points for this booking can currently be generated from 267,000 Ultimate Rewards Points which, based on my valuation of 1.5 cents/point, are worth $4,050.
When you add in the horrendous resort fees and taxes that get attached to the award booking, someone transferring Chase Points over to Marriott to reserve this 5-night stay would effectively be handing over $4,364 in points and cash in exchange for a booking that would otherwise have cost $5,375.
That’s a saving of over $1,000.
Yes, this is an extreme example so there will be plenty of other examples where transferring Chase points over to Marriott makes no sense whatsoever. But I mentioned that towards the beginning of this post.
What I’m trying to show with this example is that what may appear to be a terrible deal at first glance, may not really be terrible in all circumstances. If you’re booking high-end properties that cost a lot of money, a transfer of Chase points may be a very good way to save a significant amount of money even though Marriott Bonvoy now uses dynamic pricing.
Bottom Line
A lot of the time the numbers will show that transferring Ultimate Rewards Points to Marriott Bonvoy is a poor value proposition regardless of what transfer bonus gets offered because UR Points are so much more valuable than Bonvoy points.
As shown above, however, there will be times when a transfer makes sense because despite first appearances, it can save a Bonvoy Member a substantial sum of money.
If you’re topping up an account or booking a standard room at a property where prices are high (especially if you’re booking a 5-night stay) then a transfer from Chase may offer good savings, but make sure you check the numbers before you enact any transfers as there’s no going back.
Featured image: Ritz-Carlton St Thomas
